This invention relates to the automatic processing of financial documents, and in particular, it relates to an apparatus which is used to enhance the processing procedure used in banking systems.
The automatic processing of financial documents, such as checks, has been facilitated through the use of known, machine readable codes such as E-13B, CMC-7, OCR-A, and OCR-B. Recently, the banking industry has recognized that the automatic processing of checks between institutions could be enhanced by the addition of non-MICR data on to checks. This non-MICR data tended to duplicate, to some degree, the information contained on the MICR line; however, the presence of the non-MICR data enabled processing to continue even though there was a failure associated with the MICR data. In addition, the non-MICR data generally contained more information than was present in the MICR line on the check; such additional information included, for example, the name of the financial institution of first deposit of the check. This facilitated the processing of rejected items or checks, for example. The primary, known, non-MICR enhancement technique which has been considered employs bar codes which are printed in fluorescent ink; U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,121 employs such a technique. Generally, the bar codes appear on the backs of the financial documents and are limited, generally, to printing a unique document identification number on each document when received at a bank. The bar codes can be used in the processing of documents for such operations as processing return items, processing reject items, and performing adjustment procedures.
When a check is returned due to insufficient funds, it is necessary to retrace the processing trail which the check took in getting to the final payee bank. This retracing of the processing of the check is generally accomplished by manually viewing the endorsements on the back of the check. The endorsements are placed on the back of a check by each bank which processes the check, and very often, these endorsements overlap one another and are difficult to read. This generally necessitates manual reading of the endorsements to find out who processed the check and this is an expensive and time consuming operation.
Another newer method of handling the endorsements on checks involves the use of a bar or stripe of magnetic material which is positioned on the front of the checks in a location which is away from the line on which the MICR data or printing is present i.e., the "MICR Clear Band". This bar or stripe of magnetic material is printed on the checks at the time when the check itself is printed. The various endorsements made by the banks in the processing trail are magnetically written in the bar or stripe of magnetic material. This magnetic stripe enables a lot more information to be recorded on the documents to facilitate the inter-institutional processing of rejected documents when compared to present day endorsements which are stamped on the backs of documents as alluded to earlier herein.
One of the problems associated with the method disclosed in the previous paragraph is that the endorsements which are encoded on the bar or stripe of magnetic material are only machine readable and cannot be read visually by bank personnel. Another problem is that because the bar or stripe of magnetic material is printed at the same time that the rest of the data on the check is printed, any check which is carried in a person's bill fold or purse may become wrinkled or worn. When such a check is processed, incorrect recording and reading of data recorded on the magnetic bar or stripe results.